Theresa May is in Northumberland today to make a direct appeal to voters to put their trust in her as she bids to win over traditional Labour voters.

With some moderate Labour MPs reported to be in revolt over Mr Corbyn’s radical programme of renationalisation and expanding public services and following the leak of the party’s manifesto, Mrs May will accuse him of a return to the ‘disastrous socialist policies of the 1970s’.

In a speech marking the mid-point of the campaign, she will reach out to disaffected Labour voters, saying many were ‘appalled’ at the direction he was taking the party, while promising to ‘earn the trust of all our people’ if she is returned to Downing Street on June 8.

“So far during this campaign we have learned one thing about Jeremy Corbyn; proud and patriotic working class people in towns and cities across Britain have not deserted the Labour Party – Jeremy Corbyn has deserted them,” she is expected to say.

“Millions of people here in the North East of England, and across our country, have loyally given the Labour Party their allegiance for generations. I respect that.

“We respect that parents and grandparents taught their children and grandchildren that Labour was a party that shared their values and stood up for their community.

“But across the country today, traditional Labour supporters are increasingly looking at what Jeremy Corbyn believes in and are appalled.”

However, Ian Lavery, Labour’s national campaign chairman and most recent MP for Wansbeck, said: “This is nonsense. The wonderful people of the North East of England won’t be fooled by this farcical attempt by Theresa May to mask the damage her Tories have done to the lives of working people across the country.

“Under the Tories, working families are set to be an average of £1,400 a year worse off, real wages are lower now than they were in 2010 and nearly six million people are paid less than the living wage. All this while the few at the top have been given tax breaks worth tens of billions of pounds.

“To be the party of working people would be the party to have established the NHS, introduced the minimum wage and now has a plan to introduce a £10 minimum wage and create a National Education Service. As the party of cuts to public services, the bedroom tax and a VAT rise, the Tories remain – as ever – a party of the few. Only Labour can be trusted to deliver a country for the many.”